New images from Corine

Today a selection of some images we shot with Corine during the workshop “Working on location”
And some more information on a very special lens.

This last one is pretty interesting I think.
A lot of people are obsessed by quality and think that they can’t make a good shot if they don’t use exotic or high resolution, lens-flare resistant glass. We all have been in that “dark” place, money is flowing out of your pocket and the bag gets heavier and heavier, and as soon as there is a new lens released that tests 2% better… here we go again.

As you already read on this blog I love film photography and vintage lenses, the fun part is that if I tell the people in the workshop I’m gonna use a 5.00 lens they are often already prejudging that the outcome will be fun for a 5.00 lens but not something they want…. but a lot of the students however love the outcome of this (now almost mythical) 5.00 lens more than they thought and are considering getting one for themselves. It’s hard to explain to someone who is all into the final piece of quality (that never comes and is always improved) that there is more than pure contrast and sharpness. A good lens for me gives “soul” to the shot and in this case the lens is very prone to lens-flare meaning that as soon as it senses the sun it will start to give me a nice “dreamy” look, it’s still sharp when I zoom in on the eye, but everything else just gets a wonderful creamy dreamlike look, it’s something that I started to like as soon as I put the lens on the camera for the first time.

Which lens?
It’s a very simple (old) Petri 50mm 1.8 lens.
You can get them for next to nothing on e-Bay or flea markets.
In this case it’s a M42 lens so be prepared to get a convertor for your camera and learn to shoot full manual on the lens (the camera still operates in AV mode by the way).